Sunday, October 12, 2014

Banks Are Backbone Of Indian Economy

Banks are Indian Economy’s strength: Gurumurthy-Times of India

CHENNAI: The core strength of the Indian economy is banks, according to corporate advisor and commentator S Gurumurthy.

"In USA, nearly 55% of the American families hold shares. In India only one per cent of our savings gets into the stock market. Even during the bull run, this moved up to 5%. The strength of the Indian economy is that it is bank driven economy," Gurumurthy said. He was delivering the inaugural address of the Triennial Conference of the Indian Overseas Bank Officers' Association in the city on Saturday.

Dwelling on the biggest fear posed to the banking system worldwide, Gurumurthy said that shadow banking was a huge threat. "In USA, nearly 35% of financial activities are routed through shadow banking and shadow banking is also rising in China," he said.With Asia generating 75% of the world's savings, importance of the banking and insurance sector cannot be ignored in India, Gurumurthy said. Citing a Golman Sachs report he said that by 2020, 60% of India's savings would be in banks, 24% of savings would be in insurance with Indians putting 14% and 6% of their savings in pension funds and stocks respectively. "The credit led growth led to the collapse of the stock market in 2008," he added.

India is a test-bed to create tools, ideas for the world: Zuckerberg -Hindu Business Line

Thomas K Thomas

New Delhi, October 9:

For Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, India is more than just a big market. It is a test-bed where he hopes to develop tools and ideas that can be used by the world.

To make this happen, Zuckerberg announced a million-dollar fund to start an innovation challenge in India. The fund will be made available to developers of applications, websites and online services that improve the lives of women, students, farmers and migrant workers.

“Because India has embraced science, research and development, the benefits of bringing connectivity to India are going to be profound. When you bring the Internet to India, you are empowering people to build tools that can really benefit the world,” he said. Zuckerberg is also interested in driving other initiatives in India, including a scheme that will offer basic Internet services free of cost in collaboration with telecom operators and handset makers.

This will allow people to browse select health, employment and local information websites without data charges.

During his two-day visit, Zuckerberg will meet Sunil Mittal, Chairman of the Bharti Group and Rahul Sharma, founder of Micromax, to push this agenda. With 100 million users, India is now the second biggest market for Facebook after the US.

But lack of Internet connectivity across the country is a major concern for the company’s future growth. Zuckerberg said Facebook was experimenting with satellites and solar-powered drones to make cheaper Internet access available to countries such as India.

“If you can do it successfully in India then you can do it anywhere else,” he said.

Zuckerberg will also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to discuss how Facebook can help with the Digital India mission.

Facebook is also working with the Government on using its platform to spread awareness about the Clean India drive. “Facebook is the biggest Internet service worldwide and there are unique things where we can help out,” he said.